I think I have the biggest headache from Kang Hansoo being a regressor in a work called Reincarnator. Because to me, transmigrator and reincarnator are the same thing as in the soul department getting transport to a body. But for the former, it is into a body of someone different (?) and might already been occupied while the latter's soul is getting put into an orignal body... wtf. Anyone can explain the terminology or are they just synonyms to one another?
What I understood so far Transmigrator is a soul entered a different person body while reincarnator (or even rebirth) when the soul inside the body is the same one in the previous timeline
Transmigrator - Soul goes from body A to body B (Body B once possessed a soul different from the transmigrator) e.g. Trash of the count's family Regressor - Soul goes back in time into their old body e.g. Reincarnator Reincarnator - Soul is reincarnated into a baby e.g. superstar From Age 0 Isekai - Just means diffrent world. So the isekaier is teleported to another world. The soul does not enter a new body. e.g. Any hero summoning novel Hope that makes sense
Well, isekai is a more generic term... Like, reincarnating into a different world also counts as isekai.
Transmigrator is someone whose soul leaves his original body and then travels to another world and posses, switch places or fuse with another person Reincarnator is someone who dies and is reborn in another body (it can be in another world or the same world) Regressor is someone who goes back in time. Isekaier is someone who goes to another world either by rebirth or being transported with his original body. Now the differences: Transmigrator x Reincarnator - the main difference between these two is that a transmigrator assume the control of an already existing body which already has a history and is usually adult (many times they also don't have the body's memories which can cause trouble), while a Reincarnator is literally reborn, their new body is their own and they posses all memories, although some may only remember their past lives after some years or a specific event (normally most get their past life memories during childhood). Also an Reincarnator can technically be reborn in the same world while transmigrator can't Regressor - as said regressor is someone Who goes back in time, the trigger can be many things but usually it's death, some can go back more than once others only go back once, but as said it's always to their own past. Isekaier - isekaier is someone who goes to another world it doesn't matter the method, an isekair can be a transmigrator or a Reincarnator or none of the two at all in case they get transported as they are. A bit confusing but I hope it helps
Yeah, in my opinion those "summoned heroes" should be a type of transmigrator, too. They just transmigrate as a whole instead of just their soul / psyche / w.e.
Your confusion is quite understandable. Leaving aside regression (simply a reversion to an earlier state, here used in relation to a person going back in time) and isekai (an umbrella term, but here chiefly being used to denote transportation or summoning to another world, intact), transmigration, as the ancient Greek philosophers like Pythagoras and Plato stated it, and reincarnation which is more associated with the Orient, are one and the same, that is movement of the soul from one body to another after death, but here, in the webnovel community, it has been differentiated as occupation of an already existing body in the former, and movement to an embryo (rebirth or metempsychosis) in the latter.
Technically they aren't, because a transmigrator assume control of a body that is originally not theirs. (Normally their souls switch place or fuse with the body's original owner) As summoned heroes go to another world as whole they aren't in another's body and can't be regarded transmigration
So what you are saying for the transmigrator, another point of difference is that their original body may or may not (often is may for convenience) dead as they swap souls with their unintended target, resulting in an instant chance of killing their host in the first place. That I agree, considering the heroes are isekaiers instead of transmigrators solely because: A. They bring their own body to the party. B. They are not carjacking someone elses. Also for the transmigrator, I always find it BS as to "not accessing the memories" when it is clear that memories are supposed to be stored in the brain of the body. It is something like going into someone's house and not knowing where they put their socks, but after a while of rummaging, you should know where they are.
Most of the novels state that both the original body and the new body dies in similar circumstances or same time. But the new body is resurrected because the soul entered. There are different cases tho. Many times it's implied that the souls switched places which means Soul A transmigrated into Body B, while soul B transmigrated into Body A. In some cases it's also said that the original soul of body B consensually called soul A. But yes, there are cases where soul A kills soul B while transmigrating. (I remember that i saw two novels where both souls still lives in the same body but soul A becomes the main controller of the body) About that, i also agree that is BS But usually those novels assume that memories are stored in the soul rather than the brain itself. Usually transmigration novels which the mc actually remember the body's memories (or at least fragments of it) are the ones where for some reason the body's original soul was destroyed, so the new soul kinda absorbs the fragments and gain some if not all memories.
Funny how.I never realized reincarnator was misnamed until.you mentioned it. It was a good.novel in the beginning but I feel like the author tired of it and just finish it quickly
Well, technically 'transmigration' as a word (roughly) got the meaning of moving somewhere else. The definition of a 'transmigrator', I'd have to agree as we've experienced it in all those novels. But from the word itself, "isekai" heroes should count as a form of transmigration, too (just bringing your own living space with you instead of taking over some local chap's ^^)
Reincarnation is a real-world belief that when you die, you get reborn into a new body and as a new person. Usually this includes concepts like karmic debt and forgetting past lives. The reincarnation in novels often are second chance stories where the protagonist gets to live his original life again except with knowledge of how everything worked out the first time around. Note that authors will usually use different terms for these different forms of reincarnation so the reader is supposed to be aware of the distinction. However translators may not preserve this distinction so there can be some confusion. Transmigration is a much broader term and any time a character is displaced somewhere else will qualify for this term. Whether this displacement is to another world, or a different era, and all matters of souls, bodies, and displacement mechanisms are completely irrelevant. Chinese writers will put all of these into the same umbrella concept of "transmigration" because the act of traveling to a new setting is of overriding importance.
I mean... You're dealing with a magical setting where someone's soul can travel between worlds and keep its memories of its past life and stuff... Are you seriously going to argue that the memories of the person that lost their body had to be stored in the brain, while the memories of the other party were stored in the soul? I get that adhering to science is nice and all, but sometimes you just have to accept that the magic overwrites the laws of physics and biology. It's the necessary suspension of disbelief required to enjoy these works.